Healthcare organizations have an epidemic on their hands: Medical error is causing as many as 98,000 deaths a year in the nation's hospitals. And these failures are not due to unqualified clinicians or the lack of technology - instead, evidence indicates that at least 80 percent of medical error is system derived, meaning that system flaws are setting good people up to fail.
Achieving Safe and Reliable Healthcare: Strategies and Solutions provides healthcare leaders with a blueprint for building and supporting a culture of patient safety. It includes contributions from experts who have created comprehensive and successful patient safety programs in their organizations.
Michael Leonard, M.D., is physician leader of patient safety atKaiser Permanente in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and words with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Allan Frankel, M.D., is director of patient safety at Partners Healthcare in Boston. He also works with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Error.
Terri Simmonds, R.N., CPHQ, is a director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston. She also works with the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Error.